Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
There is but one art, to omit.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of simplicity and the skill of knowing what to leave out in creative endeavors.
Robert Louis Stevenson's quote highlights that true artistry lies not just in what is included in a work, but significantly in what is intentionally left out. The ability to omit unnecessary details can strengthen a piece of art, making it more impactful and focused, allowing the essence of the work to shine through without distractions.
In practice
An artist could use this quote when discussing minimalism in their artwork.
Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.
Like a bird singing in the rain, let grateful memories survive in time of sorrow.
That man is a success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much.
His past was fairly blameless; few men could read the rolls of their life with less apprehension; yet he was humbled to the dust by the many ill things he had done, and raised up again into sober and fearful gratitude by the many he had come so near to doing, yet avoided.
The habit of being happy enables one to be freed, or largely freed, from the domination of outward conditions.
It is the history of our kindnesses that alone make this world tolerable. If it were not for that, for the effect of kind words, kind looks, kind letters . . . I should be inclined to think our life a practical jest in the worst possible spirit.
I should write for the mere yearning and fondness I have for the beautiful, even if my night's labors should be burnt every morning and no eye shine upon them.
Writing has... been to me like a bath from which I have risen feeling cleaner, healthier, and freer.
A good, sympathetic review is always a wonderful surprise.
The authour who imitates his predecessors only by furnishing himself with thoughts and elegances out of the same general magazine of literature, can with little more propriety be reproached as a plagiary, than the architect can be censured as a mean copier of Angelo or Wren, because he digs his marble out of the same quarry, squares his stones by the same art, and unites them in columns of the same orders.
Like night dreams, stores often use symbolic language, therefore bypassing the ego and persona, and traveling straight to the spirit and soul who listen for the ancient and universal instructions imbedded there. Because of this process, stories can teach, correct errors, lighten the heart and the darkness, provide psychic shelter, assist transformation and heal wounds.
A Poem does not grow by jerks. As trees in Spring produce a new ring of tissue, so does every poet put forth a fresh outlay of stuff at the same season.
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